Robert Francis Rossiter, Jr.
How Judge Jr. decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Extends genuine leeway to pro se litigants: will give a non-compliant pro se party another opportunity to properly support their position rather than entering judgment immediately, while still holding them to the same substantive burden.
“Out of an abundance of caution and a desire to achieve a fair result, the Court will give Bollinger one more opportunity to properly respond to Autozoners’s motion.”
Procedural preferences
Reluctant to deem a movant's statement of material facts admitted or grant summary judgment merely because the opponent failed to respond properly; prefers to reach the merits fairly even when local-rule grounds for an automatic grant exist.
“The postal service asks the Court “to deem [its] statement of material facts admitted” and grant summary judgment in its favor, but the Court is reluctant to do that under the circumstances of this case.”
Cautions
Expects litigants (even pro se) to engage with and rebut the opposing party's specific legal arguments; cursory or unexplained submissions that ignore the dispositive issues will not succeed.
“Aside from a cursory complaint about “unfound facts” that purportedly fail to account for Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(i)(1)(C), Becker neither challenges Vaughn’s assumptions about her rather cryptic claim nor cogently addresses his jurisdictional arguments.”
Motion outcomes
Counted from classified signed orders only. Percentages are shown only where the sample is large enough to be meaningful; smaller samples are reported as raw counts.
| Motions to dismiss N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Summary judgment N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to dismiss and motion for summary judgment N = 1 |
Moot / procedural: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for voluntary dismissal N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Motion to rescind removal N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motions to strike N = 1 |
Denied: 1 | counts only |
| Motion for leave to file further evidence N = 1 |
Granted: 1 | counts only |
| Request for judicial notice N = 1 |
Granted in part: 1 | counts only |
A "1 of 1" is one ruling, not a tendency. Treat small samples as illustrative, not predictive.
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“Plaintiff’s Motion to Strike Extraneous Material (Filing No. 42) is denied.”
“Defendants U.S. Bank’s, Wells Fargo Bank’s, and REO’s Motions for Leave to File Further Evidence (Filing Nos. 56 and 59) are granted.”
“Plaintiffs’ Requests to Take Judicial Notice (Filing Nos. 41, 51, and 64) are granted in part and denied in part.”
“Plaintiff Michael Segobia’s Motion for Dismissal Without Prejudice (Filing No. 56) is granted.”
“Defendant Megan J. Brennan’s Motion to Dismiss and Motion for Summary Judgment (Filing No. 51) is denied as moot.”
“Defendant David Vaughn’s Motion to Dismiss (Filing No. 6) pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) is granted.”
“Plaintiff Susanne Becker’s motion to rescind (Filing No. 10) and motion for contempt and summary judgment (Filing No. 11) are denied.”
“Plaintiff Susanne Becker’s motion to rescind (Filing No. 10) and motion for contempt and summary judgment (Filing No. 11) are denied.”
“Instead of granting summary judgment on this basis, the Court will give Bollinger a final chance to support his retaliation claim with the evidence he has in his possession.”